Hard science fiction

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Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most significant writers of hard science fiction Clarke sm.jpg
Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most significant writers of hard science fiction
Poul Anderson, author of Tau Zero, Kyrie and others Poul anderson.jpg
Poul Anderson, author of Tau Zero , Kyrie and others

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. [1] [2] [3] The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's Islands of Space in the November issue of Astounding Science Fiction . [4] [5] [1] The complementary term soft science fiction, formed by analogy to the popular distinction between the "hard" (natural) and "soft" (social) sciences, [6] first appeared in the late 1970s. Though there are examples generally considered as "hard" science fiction such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, built on mathematical sociology, [7] science fiction critic Gary Westfahl argues that while neither term is part of a rigorous taxonomy, they are approximate ways of characterizing stories that reviewers and commentators have found useful. [8]

Contents

History

Frank R. Paul's cover for the last issue (December 1953) of Science-Fiction Plus Science fiction plus 195312.jpg
Frank R. Paul's cover for the last issue (December 1953) of Science-Fiction Plus

Stories revolving around scientific and technical consistency were written as early as the 1870s with the publication of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas in 1870, among other stories. The attention to detail in Verne's work became an inspiration for many future scientists and explorers, although Verne himself denied writing as a scientist or seriously predicting machines and technology of the future.[ citation needed ]

Hugo Gernsback believed from the beginning of his involvement with science fiction in the 1920s that the stories should be instructive, [10] although it was not long before he found it necessary to print fantastical and unscientific fiction in Amazing Stories to attract readers. [11] During Gernsback's long absence from science fiction (SF) publishing, from 1936 to 1953, the field evolved away from his focus on facts and education. [12] [13] The Golden Age of Science Fiction is generally considered to have started in the late 1930s and lasted until the mid-1940s, bringing with it "a quantum jump in quality, perhaps the greatest in the history of the genre", according to science fiction historians Peter Nicholls and Mike Ashley. [14]

However, Gernsback's views were unchanged. In his editorial in the first issue of Science-Fiction Plus , he gave his view of the modern SF story: "the fairy tale brand, the weird or fantastic type of what mistakenly masquerades under the name of Science-Fiction today!" and he stated his preference for "truly scientific, prophetic Science-Fiction with the full accent on SCIENCE". [13] In the same editorial, Gernsback called for patent reform to give science fiction authors the right to create patents for ideas without having patent models because many of their ideas predated the technical progress needed to develop specifications for their ideas. The introduction referenced the numerous prescient technologies described throughout Ralph 124C 41+ . [15]

Definition

The heart of the "hard science fiction" designation is the relationship of the science content and attitude to the rest of the narrative, and (for some readers, at least) the "hardness" or rigor of the science itself. [16] One requirement for hard SF is procedural or intentional: a story should try to be accurate, logical, credible and rigorous in its use of current scientific and technical knowledge about which technology, phenomena, scenarios and situations that are practically or theoretically possible. For example, the development of concrete proposals for spaceships, space stations, space missions, and a US space program in the 1950s and 1960s influenced a widespread proliferation of "hard" space stories. [17] Later discoveries do not necessarily invalidate the label of hard SF, as evidenced by P. Schuyler Miller, who called Arthur C. Clarke's 1961 novel A Fall of Moondust hard SF, [4] and the designation remains valid even though a crucial plot element, the existence of deep pockets of "moondust" in lunar craters, is now known to be incorrect.

There is a degree of flexibility in how far from "real science" a story can stray before it leaves the realm of hard SF. [18] Hard science fiction authors only include more controversial devices when the ideas draw from well-known scientific and mathematical principles. In contrast, authors writing softer SF use such devices without a scientific basis (sometimes referred to as "enabling devices", since they allow the story to take place). [19]

Readers of "hard SF" often try to find inaccuracies in stories. For example, a group at MIT concluded that the planet Mesklin in Hal Clement's 1953 novel Mission of Gravity would have had a sharp edge at the equator, and a Florida high school class calculated that in Larry Niven's 1970 novel Ringworld the topsoil would have slid into the seas in a few thousand years. [8] Niven fixed these errors in his sequel The Ringworld Engineers , and noted them in the foreword.

Films set in outer space that aspire to the hard SF label try to minimize the artistic liberties taken for the sake of practicality of effect. Such considerations to be made when shooting may include:

Representative works

Larry Niven, author of Ringworld, "Inconstant Moon", "The Hole Man" and others. Larry Niven - Utopiales 2010.jpg
Larry Niven, author of Ringworld , "Inconstant Moon", "The Hole Man" and others.

Arranged chronologically by publication year.

Anthologies

Short stories

Novels

Films and TV shows

Anime / manga

Video games

See also

Related Research Articles

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Laurence van Cott Niven is an American science fiction writer. His 1970 novel Ringworld won the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. With Jerry Pournelle he wrote The Mote in God's Eye (1974) and Lucifer's Hammer (1977). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America gave him the 2015 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.

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"The Cold Equations" is a science fiction short story by American writer Tom Godwin (1915–1980), first published in Astounding Magazine in August 1954. In 1970, the Science Fiction Writers of America selected it as one of the best science-fiction short stories published before 1965, and it was therefore included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964. It has been widely anthologized and dramatized.

<i>Planet Stories</i> 20th-century American pulp science fiction magazine

Planet Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. Malcolm Reiss was editor or editor-in-chief for all of its 71 issues. Planet Stories was launched at the same time as Planet Comics, the success of which probably helped to fund the early issues of Planet Stories. Planet Stories did not pay well enough to regularly attract the leading science fiction writers of the day, but occasionally obtained work from well-known authors, including Isaac Asimov and Clifford D. Simak. In 1952 Planet Stories published Philip K. Dick's first sale, and printed four more of his stories over the next three years.

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Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, when his media company Experimenter Publishing went bankrupt. Within a few months of the bankruptcy, Gernsback launched three new magazines: Air Wonder Stories, Science Wonder Stories, and Science Wonder Quarterly.

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Science-Fiction Plus was an American science fiction magazine published by Hugo Gernsback for seven issues in 1953. In 1926, Gernsback had launched Amazing Stories, the first science fiction magazine, but he had not been involved in the genre since 1936, when he sold Wonder Stories. Science-Fiction Plus was initially in slick format, meaning that it was large-size and printed on glossy paper. Gernsback had always believed in the educational power of science fiction, and he continued to advocate his views in the new magazine's editorials. The managing editor, Sam Moskowitz, had been a reader of the early pulp magazines, and published many writers who had been popular before World War II, such as Raymond Z. Gallun, Eando Binder, and Harry Bates. Combined with Gernsback's earnest editorials, the use of these early writers gave the magazine an anachronistic feel.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soft science fiction</span> Sub-genre of science fiction emphasizing "soft" sciences or human emotions

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Westfahl, Gary (1996). "Introduction". Cosmic Engineers: A Study of Hard Science Fiction . Greenwood Press. p.  2. ISBN   0-313-29727-4. hard science fiction ... the term was first used by P. Schuyler Miller in 1957
  2. ↑ Nicholls, Peter (1995). Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN   978-0-312-13486-0.
  3. ↑ Wolfe, Gary K. (1986). Critical terms for science fiction and fantasy: a glossary and guide to scholarship. Greenwood Press. ISBN   978-0-313-22981-7.
  4. 1 2 "hard science fiction n." Science fiction citations. Jesse's word. 2005-07-25. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-10-07. Earliest cite: P. Schuyler Miller in Astounding Science Fiction ... he called A Fall of Moondust "hard" science fiction
  5. ↑ Hartwell, David G.; Cramer, Kathryn (2003). "Introduction: New People, New Places, New Politics". The Hard SF Renaissance: An Anthology. Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN   978-1-4299-7517-9.
  6. ↑ "soft science fiction n." Science fiction citations. Jesse's word. 2005-07-25. Retrieved 2007-10-07. Soft science fiction, probably a back-formation from Hard Science Fiction)
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  8. 1 2 Westfahl, Gary (June 9, 2008). "Hard Science Fiction". In Seed, David (ed.). A Companion to Science Fiction. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 195–8. ISBN   978-0-470-79701-3.
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  10. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 50.
  11. ↑ Ashley (2000), p. 54.
  12. ↑ Ashley (2004), p. 252.
  13. 1 2 Lawler (1985), pp. 541–545.
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  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hartwell, David G.; Cramer, Kathryn, eds. (1994). The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF. New York: Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. ISBN   978-0-312-85509-3. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09.
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  29. 1 2 3 Brin, David (1986). "Running Out of Speculative Niches: A Crisis for Hard SF?". In Seiters, Dan (ed.). Hard Science Fiction. Southern Illinois University Press. pp.  8–13. ISBN   0809312344.
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  35. ↑ "Schild's Ladder".
  36. ↑ Jon Courtenay Grimwood (2005-11-05). "Cold comforts". The Guardian.
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  40. 1 2 3 4 5 "Contemplate Your Place in the Universe with Hard Sci-Fi Film Classics!". 17 November 2014.
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  43. ↑ "Unveiling the top 10 hard Sci-Fi movies: From '2001: A Space Odyssey' to Sunshine". 26 November 2023.
  44. ↑ Woerner, Meredith (June 28, 2013). "How Real Scientists Shaped the Story of Europa Report". Gizmodo .
  45. 1 2 "9 Surprisingly Accurate Hard Sci-Fi Movies That You Can Stream Tonight". 2 October 2020.
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  47. 1 2 Ruh, B. (2004). Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii. Springer. p. 77. ISBN   978-1-4039-8279-7.
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